This the text of a sermon delivered on the first day of Shavuot, 5778 –

Traditionally in Hebrew a synagogue has two names.On the one hand, we call the synagogue the Beit Keneset, the place of gathering, and on the other, we call it the Beit Midrash, the House of Study.If you come to Beth El with any frequency you know that we do quite a bit of both here.Obviously we pray here regularly.Today we are here in prayer celebrating the Shavuot festival, but of course we gather for prayer every Friday night and Saturday morning for Shabbat, and a dedicated group of congregants even comes together on a daily basis to pray in our weekday minyanim.And of course in the fall thousands of people come to pray during the High Holy Days.

But Beth El is also a place of study, a Beit Midrash.It is hard to imagine it right now, but when I first came to Beth El there was no adult education programming.None.Not a single class, not a single musical program, not a single movie.And slowly, over time, first under the leadership of Allan Lipsitz of blessed memory, and more recently under the guidance and vision of Dr. Eyal Bor, the adult education programming has blossomed, becoming one of Beth El’s most important initiatives. Every year thousands of people come through our doors to learn and study, and through that process, to grow Jewishly.

And it is that sense of the importance of study that makes Shavuot different from any of our other festivals.I would say that for all of our other holidays, when we come to synagogue, the emphasis is on the Beit Keneset, the synagogue as the place where we gather to pray.But on Shavuot it is different.On Shavuot, particularly the eve of Shavuot, we come to the synagogue thinking of it as a Beit Midrash, as a place where we gather together to study Torah.

There is actually an old tension in the tradition between the values of prayer and study.Both are understood as being important, both crucial to living a full and meaningful Jewish life.But by and large, when prayer and study conflict, the tradition prefers that we leave prayer aside and focus on study.No question in my mind the Talmudic sages understood study as a higher spiritual exercise than prayer, and they believed that through study one could come closer to God than one could through prayer.There is a Talmudic story of the sage Rava, who lived around the year 300 in the city of Pumbedita in Babylonia.He once found a student late for class because the student was saying his prayers slowly.We might expect a Rabbi to be pleased that one of his students was taking prayer so seriously, but Rava reprimanded the student, saying to him ‘מניחין חיי עילם ועוסקים בחיי שעה’ – you are forsaking eternal life to busy yourself with the here and now!In the rabbinic mind prayer is the ‘here and now,’ almostmundane.But study?That is the gateway to eternal life.The Sages believed that it was through study, not prayer, that a Jew could find true salvation and meaning.

But the importance of study is also understood as working on a national level, and that is what Shavuot is about.The moment that symbolizes that is this morning’s Torah reading and the 5th aliyah, when we stand together to listen to the words of the 10 commandments.In one sense we are re-enacting the moment when God spoke the words and the Israelites, standing at the foot of Mt. Sinai, heard God’s voice.But in an other sense we are symbolizing in that moment our continued dedication – as a people – to the Torah, to our sacred book.We are in effect saying ‘we will continue to study the book that You, God, have given us.’And it is because of that dedication to Torah, to the values of study and education and intellect, that we are called the People of the Book.

And I would argue that it is that dedication to study that has enabled the Jewish people to survive for thousands of years.The Talmud (Shabbat 30b) tells of a conversation between King David and God.It seems that David was worrying about the end of his life, and he wanted God to tell him when he would die.God tells David that information like that is something a human is not allowed to know.And David pushes God, saying ‘at least tell me on which day of the week I will die.’And God says, ‘you will die on a Shabbat.’

Now David was a smart guy, and he knows, according to tradition, that if you are engaged in the act of study, the Angel of Death is unable to take your soul away.So David begins to spend every Shabbat studying for 24 hours.When the appointed day of David’s death arrives, the Angel of Death has a problem.But he has an idea, the Angel of Death.He’ll distract David.And that is exactly what he does.According to the Talmud, the Angel of Death climbs a tree near David’s window, and shakes the tree.David is startled, and for just a moment he looks up from his book, and stops his study.And at that instant the Angel of Death is able to take his soul away, and David dies.

On the surface, that story might sound like an old wives tale.But read between the lines with me for a moment.In the course of the narrative David is transformed from a warrior king to a rabbi, spending his days engaged in the study of the tradition.The great palace that he lived in has been transformed into a Beit Midrash – a House of Study.And in that transformation, David has become a metaphor for a new way of Jewish life, and for a new means of Jewish survival.Jews would not live in palaces, they would not have armies, they would not have kings, the Temple would be destroyed, and there would be no more sacrifices.

But what Jews would always have was the Torah, given to Moses, transmitted to the people, and studied ever since.The Torah can go anywhere.It can go to Babylonia and the Academy of Rava, it can go to Europe, it can be carried here to the United States.Anywhere there is a Torah there is a Beit Midrash, a House of Study.And anywhere there is a House of Study, there is Jewish life.In the Talmudic story as long as David continued to study he continued to live.We might say the same about the Jewish people.From one generation to the next we have dedicated ourselves to the study of Torah, and by doing so we have ensured the survival of Jewish tradition, and the Jewish people.Shavuot is the holiday when we rededicate ourselves to that process of study and the role it plays in the continuity of our people.May we continue to do so again and again, for many years, through many generations.

We began reading this morning the fourth book of the Torah, called in Hebrew Bamidbar, and in English the Book of Numbers.The book is primarily concerned with the wanderings of the Israelites through the wilderness in the course of their forty year journey to the Promised Land.By and large it does not paint a pretty picture.The Israelites are, to use a technical term, ‘kvetchy.’They complain frequently to Moses, about just about everything, from the difficulty of the journey, to the quality of the food, to the qualifications of Moses to be their leader.That complaining is a theme that runs throughout the entire book.

And the brief snippets of narrative that the Book of Numbers offers are no better, and in fact might even be worse.It is in Numbers where we find the disastrous episode of the quail, where God gets so angry at the people for not being satisfied with manna that God gives them so much quail to eat that they all become sick.It is also in Numbers where we will read about the rebellion of Korah, a communal agitator who challenges the leadership of Moses.And Numbers contains the infamous episode of the spies, who go to scout out the land, bring a bad report back to the people, and cause God to decide that none of the Israelites who left Egypt will ever get to see the Promised Land.Or if you want to read about a family squabble you can look at Numbers 12, which describes Aaron and Miriam challenging the authority of their brother Moses, and then as punishment Miriam’s public shaming.Last but not least it is in Numbers where Moses will strike the rock, and will be forbidden by God to enter the Promised Land.

Not a pretty picture, by any means.

And I’ve always wondered, wasn’t there anything good going on when the Israelites were wandering for all those long years?If you think about it, there must have been!It was forty years!There must have been weddings.And after the weddings, babies were born.Friendships were formed.I am sure there were countless acts of gemilut hasadim, of loving kindness, of one person helping another.I imagine there were many sacred moments, celebrations of holidays, brises, and probably there were people who were gravely ill, and recovered, and their family felt tremendous gratitude.There must have been hundreds and hundreds of good things that happened to the people as they wandered towards the Promised Land, but the Torah doesn’t describe any of it.

On the one hand, I understand.In any dramatic narrative you have to have tension.That is what is interesting.That is what catches people’s attention.Imagine if you went to a movie, and the plot was as follows:two people are married, they have two children, they get up each morning and go to work, they are successful in their jobs, they come home each night, have dinner as a family, the kids tell the parents they are getting straight ‘As’ in school, the parents put the children to bed, watch an episode of a Netflix show, and then get into bed themselves, kissing each other good night before they fall asleep. Who would watch that?It would be boring!

But still, reading through the Book of Numbers, you can’t help thinking you’d like a little bit of that ‘boring.’It can feel like an unrelenting tale of woe and misfortune, as if nothing good ever happens, or ever will.As if the only thing the people know how to do is complain.As if there is no goodness at work in the community, no good people going about their day to day lives and doing the best they can to live with kindness, compassion and mercy.

If you think about it, it is not unlike the way Israel is often portrayed in the news media and the international community.It has been a difficult week for Israel.I am sure almost everyone in the room is aware of the terrible situation at the Gaza border crossing earlier in the week, and if you pay any attention to the news you know that some 60 Palestinians were killed, and many others wounded, as they demonstrated and attempted to break through the border fence.

At this point there have been thousands upon thousands of words written about what happened.Much of the debate tends to fall along political lines, between left and right, the left tending to blame Israel for what happened, the right tending to blame the Palestinians, particularly Hamas.We know for certain that there were Hamas fighters at the border, and we know that Hamas incites violence, and that it has a stated goal of destroying the State of Israel.That we know.

We also know that no Jew who cherishes the values of our tradition feels proud of what happened at that border this week.There has been tremendous angst, both in Israel, and in the Jewish community abroad, about the loss of life on the Palestinian side, and this is something we should be proud of!That we value life that highly, even the lives of those opposed to us, even the lives of those whose stated goal is to destroy Israel, that we feel guilty, and we worry, and we wonder if something could have been done differently so that fewer lives would have been lost.

This is not to say that Israel is perfect.There is no perfect country in the world.The United States is not perfect.Israel also is not perfect.But Israel is not all bad, the way it is all too often painted in the news.Sometimes you can read the news about Israel and it is like reading the book of Numbers.All that you find are descriptions of the tragedies and the deaths and the condemnations and the UN votes.One grim narrative after another after another.That is the Book of Numbers.

So sometimes, and maybe particularly when Israel has had a difficult week, we need to remember what goodness has come into the world because Israel has existed for 70 years.We should remember that Israel is the sole democracy in the Middle East where equal rights for men and women are upheld, where freedom of the press is respected, and where religious diversity is allowed.We need to remember that Israel is a nation of learning with great universities, libraries, and museums.Since Israel’s founding 10 Nobel prizes have been awarded to Israeli scientists, more per capita than any other country in the world.Their discoveries have been shared with every nation, and the entire world has benefitted from them.This week it might be good to rememberthat Israel is a country with state of the art medical facilities where Jew or Arab, Christian or Muslim is cared for.We should remember that Israeli agricultural innovations are used all over the world, from South Africa to Columbia to Nigeria to India, and help feed thousands and thousands of people.Even though we ask you to turn your phones off in shul, we should remember that there are cell phone and computer technologies that are relied on across the globe that were created in Israel.And we should recall – in a week that has been hard for Israel – that the first ingestible video camera was invented there, that other medical technologies, invented in Israel, are used all over the world, and are saving lives every day.

Israel is not perfect, that is true.And it has been a hard week.That is also true.But Israel and her people are constantly striving to do better, to be better, and to make the world itself a better place.May they continue to strive for those goals, and for the greatest goal of all, peace, in the years ahead –

Any experienced public speaker will be familiar with the following: You stand to speak, and you are working with an outline that is in your head, but without notes. You say (approximately) what you want to say, and sit down. Then, at a later time (sometimes right away, sometimes the next day), you realize there was something that would have worked so well in terms of your talk. If only you had thought to add it!

But of course in the internet age, you can.

So it was that this past Friday night I spoke for a few minutes at our Shabbat evening service about being in our old neighborhood in NYC and running into a man who was begging on the street. Not, of course, unusual for New York, except that this very person had been begging on the streets 20 years ago when we lived there. The gist of the sermonette was that there is a problem in a culture/society where a person is still on the street begging after twenty years.

The problem with my words was that I offered no resolution, no glimmer of hope, no uplifting message. I essentially pointed out this disturbing situation, and left it hanging in the air. Afterwards a congregant nicely, but slightly sarcastically said to me ‘thanks for the cheerful message, Rabbi, a nice way to start Shabbat.’

Now sometimes the point of preaching is simply to call attention to something that is disturbing, that for whatever reason people don’t want to confront. As the old saying goes, the preacher should comfort the afflicted, and afflict the comfortable. That being said, point well taken. And below is a story which might make a nice addendum to my Friday night comments.

You have probably heard the name James Shaw Jr. He is the man who wrestled a rifle away from a gunman who was shooting people in a Waffle House Restaurant in Nashville a couple of weeks ago. He has vociferously protested to being called a hero, simply saying he did what he felt he had to do. As if his actions in the restaurant were not enough, after the tragedy he set up a GoFundMe account for those whose lives had been changed by the shooting. His initial goal was to raise $15,000 dollars. But two weeks after he set up the account, it already had $225,000 dollars, and was growing.

When asked to comment about the fund’s success, Mr. Shaw said this: “I am overwhelmed. This has been a heartwarming reminder of what is possible when we come together to care for one another.”

What is possible when we come together to care for one another? The short answer is quite a bit, and Mr. Shaw and the victims of the shooting in Nashville have seen that first hand. The never-ending challenge is reminding people of how much there is to do, and of how much of a difference one individual can make, and all the more so a community of people who come together, care for one another, and determine to make the world a better place. If anything can help to take a beggar off the streets after 20 years, it is that kind of thinking, that sense of community, and that feeling of hope.

This the text version of my sermon from 5/5/18, reflecting on the upcoming bylaws change for the congregation in terms of the membership status of people who are not Jewish.

Just a couple of days ago we posted a link to our FB page of a blog post that has now been clicked on and read more than 3000 times.The post explains a change to the synagogue by-laws that the congregation will vote into effect Wednesday evening May 16th at our annual meeting.The by-law change has to do with the status of non-Jews at Beth El and membership.Up to this point, someone who was not Jewish could not technically be a member of the congregation.For years and years there have been many non-Jews in our community, playing meaningful roles in the life of the synagogue, making sure that their children are at Hebrew school every week, sometimes even attending services regularly, involved with committees.But until now, technically they were not members.

But the recommended change in the by-laws will formally grant membership status to non-Jews for the very first time in Beth El’s 70 years history.There will still be some caveats in place, and for the time being people who are not Jewish would not be asked to chair committees or to serve on the board.But at next year’s annual meeting, folks who are not Jewish and who are members will have a vote and will be fully counted in the required quorum for the meeting.

On the one hand the change is symbolic more than anything else.For many years – going back at least two decades – Beth El has been one of the most progressive synagogues in the Conservative Movement in terms of opening our doors to non-Jews and interfaith families.People who are not Jewish have been welcomed to our bimah, to stand with their children at the ark during a bar or bat mitzvah and read a prayer, or to stand with their Jewish spouse at the Torah during a baby naming.Some ten years ago or so we expanded the roles a non-Jew could play during services, creating opportunities for someone who is not Jewish to stand before the congregation and lead us in prayer during responsive readings, both Friday nights and Shabbat mornings.We have an interfaith havurah here, a group that meets multiple times a year to talk about interfaith issues and to explore together the interfaith journey.The Beth El clergy, from Rabbi Agus to Rabbi Loeb to the present day, have always made interfaith dialogue an important part of their communal work.

But this is something that is different.It is a formal embrace of those who are not Jewish, and by extension it is a formal embrace of the interfaith community.You probably know that the intermarriage rate in the non-Orthodox Jewish community these days is hovering around 60%.When I spoke about this issue a couple of months ago I said that it is time for the community to stop thinking about this issue as one that we need to solve.It is not solvable.The Jewish community has top notch leadership, bright minds, and deep pockets, but despite worrying about intermarriage and working on the issue for decades at this point, we have only watched the rate grow higher and higher.Are there things that increase the chances of a child marrying Jewishly?Yes!Home observance is one, and Jewish camping is another, day school can help too – but by and large this is not something that we are going to have a lot of control over and in all likelihood in the years ahead the intermarriage rate will continue to rise.

If so, I would argue that we should worry less about the number, the percentage of Jews intermarrying, and we should worry more about how we connect with these Jews and their families so that they feel welcome in the Jewish community in general and in synagogue life in particular.Because if the intermarriage rate is at 60% and we don’t figure out a way to welcome those families then we are saying to 6 out of every 10 Jews we can’t help you.And it is hard for me to understand how that is good for us, or how that is good for them.After all, if we are saying we want the children and grandchildren of intermarried families to be Jewish, doesn’t it make sense to open the door as wide as possible so that those families might be able to find a Jewish home.Without a Jewish home, we will certainly lose them.

So the by-law change is one of the ways– just one – that we are trying to say to interfaith families you can find a comfortable, meaningful, and welcoming spiritual home at Beth El for your family.

By and large as news of this change has spread the reaction has been very positive.Last I looked there were close to 130 likes on the FB post, and a number of positive comments.But I also understand that there will always be those who are uncomfortable with change, and I would like to say a word or two about that.

Because the truth is Judaism has always embraced change.This morning’s Torah portion happens to be an excellent example of that.I don’t know if you had a chance – or the inclination – to read through the entire portion, but if you did you might have noticed some of the following things described in the text.Passover falls in the first month of the year.A fair number of the verses deal with physical imperfections that in ancient times disqualified a priest from serving the congregation.The system of religious worship that is described is based almost exclusively on animal sacrifice.The celebration of Passover is mentioned in the portion, but a seder is not part of that celebration.And at the end of the portion, there is an Israelite who publicly curses using God’s name, and that person is taken outside the camp, and everyone who heard what the person said helps to stone that person to death.

So if you wonder whether Judaism changes or not, all you have to do is read this morning’s portion to know that – yes! Judaism changes.And that in fact it sometimes changes radically, dramatically.Passover now falls in the 7th month of the year, not the first, and it is celebrated through the rituals of the seder.Our system of worship does not involve the sacrifice of animals any more.The idea that we might tell someone they can’t serve the congregation because they have a physical disability is abhorrent to us.And forget about the idea of taking someone who has cursed using God’s name and stoning them to death.Were that law still practiced in modern times Rabbi Loeb wouldn’t have made it past 10 o’clock in the morning most days.

And I would only add this.All of the changes that have been made in the tradition, that we can see by looking in this morning’s Torah portion, and the hundreds and hundreds of other changes made in the course of our 3500 year old history, have made Judaism stronger, wiser, more tolerant and more humane.And these changes have also enabled the Jewish people to survive, century after century after century.

May the change that we are embracing as a congregation on May 16th do the same, for Beth El, for our community, for our families, so that we can continue to move from strength to strength –

This past Wednesday evening, when many people were at Beth T’filoh, at the community celebration for Israel’s 70th birthday – which I heard was terrific – I climbed into my car and drove downtown to the Hopkins Hillel building, where I met with the chairs of the Johns Hopkins J Street U organization.J Street U, as you may or may not know, is the college student branch of J Street, a DC based lobbying group that defines itself as pro-Israel, and pro-peace.It is without question left of center politically, and so recently has often clashed with the Netanyahu administration, which is decidedly right of center.J Street also focuses on the importance of a two state solution in terms of any ultimate peace deal with the Palestinians.

The students I met with – one young man, one young woman – are bright, thoughtful, energetic, and deeply invested in their own Jewish identity, and deeply invested in the future of the State of Israel.They worry that decisions that Israel is making today may have long term negative repercussions for the Jewish state.In their work on campus they raise awareness about those issues – an example would be Israel’s building of settlements over the green line – which they argue will make it more difficult to disentangle the Israelis and Palestinians and to implement the idea of two states for two peoples.

Now you may or may not agree with their politics – I suspect many of you don’t.But what I would ask you to consider this morning is whether those students have the right to express their views about Israel.Can we be comfortable, as a Jewish community, when critical ideas about Israel enter the communal conversation?Are we willing to listen to those ideas, to consider them, to respond thoughtfully to them?Or has our community entered a space where we will not tolerate views on Israel that we don’t agree with?

I personally hope we have not entered that kind of space, which is one of the reasons I went to meet with the Hopkins J Street U students.I wanted them to know that someone who represents the community – a rabbi, and a rabbi from a large synagogue at that – would agree to spend time with them, would listen to their concerns, and would engage in thoughtful dialogue with them, even if I didn’t necessarily agree with everything they said or every view they hold.The problem is this – if the community refuses to engage with young people like this, then we are shutting the door on young Jews who care about Israel, who are ready to work, to be active participants in the communal life, and once the door is shut we will lose their talent, their energy, and their love for the Jewish state.And it is hard for me to understand how that would be good for anyone.

It seems to me there are two challenges.The first is we have to let young people like that know they are welcome at the communal table.They have to feel safe in expressing their views, they have to be treated with the same respect as anyone else and not automatically and immediately shouted down every time they say something.The double Torah portion that we read from this morning, Tazria Metzora, is filled with bizarre details about skin diseases and ritual purity and impurity that to us as modern people are extremely difficult to relate to, to say the least.But at the heart of the double portion is one central concern – how can we bring people back into the community?And that is the question we need to ask about these young people.How can we let these young people know they are a valued part of the community, and that their views will be respected in the communal conversation about Israel?That is challenge number one.

Challenge number two has to do with a generational divide in terms of how the community understands Israel.By and large folks who are in the 50s, 60s, and up still see Israel under what I would call the old mythology.That is to say that Israel is a tiny country, that it is weak, that it is continually existentially threatened, and that it is continually overcoming enormous odds just to exist on a day to day basis.And if you remember, as some of you here today do, when Israel was founded 70 years ago, if you remember the ’67 war, or the YK war in ’73, that mythology is probably an important part of the way you understand the state and relate emotionally to Israel.

But many younger Jews today – Jews in the 40s, 30s, and 20s – don’t subscribe to that mythology.They have lived their entire lives without Israel being in a war.They know that Israel is strong economically and militarily, and they know Israel as the start up nation, a tech savvy, progressive, forward thinking country.They don’t see Israel as weak, they don’t see Israel as existentially threatened, they don’t see Israel as struggling to survive on a day to day basis.Their mythology is that Israel is a strong, established nation, now 70 years into its journey, powerful and secure and in charge of its own destiny.

And I would say in the course of the communal conversation about Israel both of those mythologies have to be recognized.The young people are right – Israel is strong and secure and powerful and in charge of its own fate.Just last month US News and World Report ranked the most powerful countries in the world, using a formula based on GDP, population, average salary, and military strength.Here are the top 8 countries on that list – you may guess #1 – the US.2?Russia.3 – China, 4 – Germany, 5 – the UK, 6 – France, 7 – Japan, and the 8th country on the list of most powerful nations in the world?Israel!8th in the world!70 years into its history that is a remarkable, astonishing, incredible accomplishment.With a GDP of 318 billion dollars, with a total population of 8.5 million people, with one of the world’s most powerful militaries, with an average citizen’s salary at around 35K per year, Israel is a true world power.The young people are right.

On the other hand, the older folks have a leg to stand on too.There is truth to the old mythology.Israel lives in a tough neighborhood to say the least.With Iran and Syria and Lebanon, with an active Hezbollah on its borders, Israel’s sense of security is fragile, and without question Israel has to constantly be on its guard.And when you take into account the growing Palestinian population, and the constant threat of terror attacks in Israel proper, Israel is facing challenges on a day to day basis that those of us who live in the US can barely get our heads around.

And I would argue that for us to be able to have a productive and meaningful communal conversation about Israel we have to take into account both the old and the new.Talk bout the full picture, not just one side.Israel is strong, powerful, established, but also at times threatened, and constantly facing danger and hostility from its neighbors.And to have that full conversation – to acknowledge all that Israel is, and all of the challenges that she faces – we need everyone around the table.Even – and maybe most importantly– those with whom we don’t agree.So lets open the doors as wide as we can – and with respect for one another – continue the conversation.

The Deadheads among you will recognize the reference to the show played by the Grateful Dead at the Augusta Civic Center, in (where else?) Augusta, Maine, on the 12th of October, 1984. Commonly acknowledged as one of the best concerts played by the Dead in the 80s, its reputation was sealed when it was included in a list of the top twenty Dead shows of all time, and then included as THE 1984 show in the CD box set release 30 Trips Around the Sun.

At the time, those of us who were lucky enough to be there had a sense that something special had happened. We may not have fully grasped the magnitude, we may not have wrapped our heads around the ultimate historical significance, we weren’t talking about top twenty all time lists, but we knew that the band had conjured up the magic that evening. I saw the Dead seven times that fall, twice in Worcester, MA (10/8 & 10/9), twice in Augusta (10/11 & 10/12), twice in Hartford, CT (10/14 & 10/15), and the tour closer at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse New York on 10/20.

The famous Augusta show was without question the peak of the tour, and within the show itself there was a moment that captured it all, that encapsulated what made the Dead the Dead. I’ll return to that in a moment. But the truth is the band was playing well in general that fall. They were having fun, throwing in some rare gems, mixing up the setlists. New England was cozy for the Dead, the venues all within a few hours drive of each other, many of the towns small, and that particular tour just happened to coincide with peak foliage, the oaks and maples deep into their oranges, yellows, and reds.

I guess what I am trying to say is as great as Augusta was, you could kind of see it (or feel it) coming. The vibe was good, Jerry energized and playing well, Mydland digging deep into a new found commitment to the blues and his Hammond B3, Weir as frisky as ever, and the drummers tight. Phil, for his part, was in a good personal space, sober, in love, and feeling groovy. The table was set.

And you could trace it in the arc of the shows. There was the explosive Help on the Way > Slipknot > Franklin’s Tower > Jack Straw to open set two of night two in Worcester. It is true that the Help > Slip > Franklin’s is a bit sloppy and choppy, Jerry not quite keeping pace with the complicated transitional leads, but the venerable old Worcester Centrum simply explodes when the crowd realizes that Jack Straw is being served up in the heart of a strong second set. Night one in Augusta, by the way, is a strong show in its own right. The first set is particularly well played, with hot versions of Shakedown, Big River, Ramble on Rose, Looks Like Rain, and Might As Well.

And post Augusta the band played a phenomenal show in Hartford. Often lost in the shuffle of the greatness of Augusta, the 10/14 Hartford show is one for the ages, with an eleven song first set, a powerful run of China > Rider, Samson and Delilah, High Time, Estimated > Eyes, all before drums!! And then post-drums a gorgeous China Doll, with the breakout of Lovelight, only the 5th time the band had played the song since 1972. Whew!

But allow me to return, for a moment, to Augusta. A fair amount has been written about the 10/12/84 show. The energetic playing. The wild setlist, filled with rarities and songs only performed once or twice that entire year. The phenomenal Morning Dew, and the Good Lovin’ encore. But there was a moment, locked forever in my memory, that captured it all, that pushed the show from great to all-time top twenty lists, and that truly expressed the quintessence of what the Dead were after night after night, of how powerful it was when they found it, and of why we went to so many shows looking for it.

It was in the second set, post drums. There is a long, long jam, winding and twisting and turning out of the space. Garcia’s guitar weaves sonic theme after sonic theme, but keeps coming back to the graceful notes that lead into Playing in the Band. The problem was, they had played Playing in the Band the night before. What was Jerry doing? He brought the band right up to the edge of the song, and then danced away, then back again. The notes appeared and disappeared, circling, close, almost, and then gone again.

And here is the thing. We were all on that ride together, Garcia’s guitar like some kind of massive magic carpet that we all were riding. Even the band! It was electric, how closely they were listening, how intently following Jerry, how ready to be vessels for the great muse that was about to descend. And we were too! Knowing, even more so feeling that a giant and beautiful and powerful wave was about to crash, and we were all ready to ride it.

Then it happened. Jerry turned towards Weir and Lesh, peering at them over his glasses in that Jerry way. At that very moment Mickey leaned forward over his drum kit, yelling out to Bobby, ‘Playin?!’ Weir turned to the drummers for an instant, and with the briefest nod confirmed what was about to happen. Suddenly, with tremendous force and power, just as Bobby turned back to the mic, the entire band came together on the mystical ‘one.’ Playing in the Band – the ‘Playin’ playout’ section – just the end, the reprise – filled up the old Augusta Civic. I believe to this day the entire concrete shell of the building momentarily lifted a few feet off of God’s good earth, with 4,000 Deadheads aboard for the ride, and the greatest band we’d ever seen on one of their greatest nights.

In one of the oddest and nearly impossible karmic Grateful Dead occurrences, somehow, someone video taped that entire night in Augusta. Remember, this was 1984!! Like with seemingly everything else in the universe, you can find the video on Youtube. The quality is iffy, but there is no question that it is the show from that evening. You can’t see the drummers on the video – it is filmed from Phil’s side of the stage, and so you see some of Phil, and Bobby, Jerry, and Brent.

But that magic moment after the space is quite clear, vivd and captured for posterity by the mysterious videographer. You see Weir turn back towards the drum kit, confirming Mickey’s query, ‘Playin?!’ That slight nod, which I guess means something like ‘evidently so!’ And then the explosion. Still gives me chills. Even 34 years later.

Let there be songs to fill the air! And magic, too, that will last a lifetime.

Been a while. I was laid up with a nasty bug that has been making its way through the synagogue staff, and then I’ve been trying to catch up. In that scramble blogging tends to slide down the priority scale as you struggle to do what needs to be done that day (or sometimes that hour) with some modicum of competence. Sometimes that is all you can hope for, just that the wheels don’t fall off, that the bus somehow shuffles along from point A to point B and arrives with everyone safely seated. Maybe it wasn’t the most memorable trip, the most dazzling or mind-bending or life-changing, but you did help folks move a little ways down the road.

Which brings me to this past weekend. A series of days that really only happens in the context of large congregational life. From Friday to Sunday we had two funerals (one Friday afternoon, one Sunday afternoon), and four b’nai mitzvah (two Saturday morning, one Saturday evening, one Sunday morning). Oh yes, and a Friday night dinner for the scholar in residence. Of course two eulogies must be written somewhere in there, charges composed for the bar and bat mitzvah students, the services themselves conducted with their various liturgical complications.

It all came together fairly well. We’ve got a good team, the staff works hard, everyone pitches in, does their job, contributes. There are little glitches here and there, but for the most part we are the only ones who notice them. After all, most of the people who came through our doors over the weekend are so far out of their element in the synagogue they hardly know what is correct or incorrect anyway. That being said, we do take pride in what we do, and we are professionals, perhaps not always the most complimentary word, but there is something to be said for it. Sometimes simply getting the names right is a victory in and of itself.

Not that we don’t have moments of nahas. We truly do feel proud of the kids, of how hard they work, how much they put into it. It might be a blur for us, particularly in a weekend when we are going from family to family to family. (Please, God, help us get the names right!) But for the families, particularly for the students, we hope they’ve had a positive experience that will stay with them for many years. Perhaps even a formative Jewish moment that will in some mysterious way help to shape who they are as people and as Jews as they grow into adulthood.

That is a future hope. Sometimes it can also be a reward in the present. We have to hope for both.